Which is better? The lie of a smile? Or the truth of a tear?
by Rainbowstorm0906
Summary: What if... What if Levi had an adopted little brother? [Rated T for curse words] (This story has multiple endings) {There is a bit of BL in here}


**Anime: Attack on titan Shingeki no kyojin 進撃の巨人**

**Relationships: _To be comfirmed._**

**Genre: Romance, drama and** **Family. A bit of humor mixed in.**

**Summary: What if our dear captain had a****dopted a sibling in the underground? **

**_A/n: For the sake of this story, I made Levi younger. So he is 28 years old in the year 850. (Hopefully my math does not fail me.)_**

**Warning: There are gay mentions in this story, so if you are homophobic, you can either not read this story, or good luck. **:)

-

**_Year 837_****_, Underground District_**

He let out a small grunt. Gritting his teeth, he curled up into a ball as his attackers ruthlessly struck different parts of his body. The seven-year-old brunet scrunched up his nose when the smell of blood invaded his sense of smell. He shifted his sight to the owner of the smell: _the dead body of his friend. _

He and his friend was wandering around the underground, pick-pocketing and stealing money and food from the over-fed merchants. Pretty much doing the usual. They had been minding their own business, when they were suddenly ambushed by a gang.

His friend unfortunately was stabbed in the heart when he could not dodge the attack. Appearently, it was fun to beat up a seven-year-old, who was definitely smaller and much weaker than a bunch of young adult thugs.

The boy suddenly felt and intense amount of pain at his abdomen, before spitting out blood and saliva. He looked up at his assailant while clutching his stomach. They sported sinister grins that sent shivers up the young kid's spine. He sent a glare at each of them, which seemingly did not go unoticed.

"What's up with you? Giving us that look? Kids like you should be treating us with respect!" One of them sneered, and picked up the boy by his collar, whom by now had no strength to fight back, before punching him in the face with a strength that sent the young one slamming against the wall behind him.

"_...fuck you..." _the child muttered and groaned, using what little energy he had left to prop himself up with his scrawny arms.

"Hah? I can't hear you!" the same man bent down and picked the kid up by grabbing a handfull of his hair.

"_..I said..._ FUCK YOU!" the child shouted and looked him in the eye, spitting his saliva in the man's face right after.

"Why you, little shi-"

The man raised his arm, his hand forming a fist. The boy squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the incoming impact. But it never came.

Instead, he felt himself collapse to the ground and heard a grunt along with the sound of bones cracking. He opened his eyes to find the man, who was previously about to punch him, howling in pain on the floor, clutching his jaw.

He looked up to find a silhouette of what seems to be a teenager towering over him. "Scram." the dark figure growled at the gang of thugs. And they wasted no time scrambling and scurring away.

The new-comer turned his attention to the severely injured child. He bent down and gingerly picked up the young male, supporting him by his bottom. And the seven-year-old wrapped his arms around the teen's neck, clutching the back his shirt. The young one burried his head in the unknown man's neck, whimpering and shaking.

The youth sighed and clicked his tongue, and turned around, walking out of the dark alley. "Stupid bastards..." he cursed under his breath.

"T-t-hank y-you..."

It was barely louder than a whisper, nonetheless, he still heard it. "Your welcome brat." he huffed.

"What's your name? I'm Aaron." Aaron asked, his voice slightly trembled.

"Levi."

**_That was the first time I ever met Levi. Who ultimately became my adopted older brother. At that time, I was 7 and he was 15. He taught me everything I knew, from cleaning, to hand-to-hand combat, how to steal, how to hold a knife correctly and how to use one properly. He even taught me how to use the 3dm gear. I even picked up his need for cleanliness_**.

**_Along the years, we met Furlan and Isabel. In the year 844, we were caught by the survey corps and met Erwin Smith, striking a deal with him. During our first expedition, both Furlan and Isabel died unfortunately. Levi became humanity's strongest soldier and I was humanity's blessing. Funny right?_**

.~.~.

**_Y__ear 847 Training grounds_**

"The 104th cadet corps class entrance ceremony will now begin!" A rather bald man shouted as he stood in front of the many rows if new cadets.

"You have the greatest misfortune for getting me, Keith Shadis, as your commandment!" His booming voice definitely could be heard by every single cadet.

"But, you have the greatest fortune to get one of the best soldier from the survey corps to supervise you!" Taking it as his cue, he took a step forward, his arms folded in front of his chest.

"Hi. I'm Lance Corporal Aaron." he said, traces of boredom could be heard in his voice. He scanned the many rows of aspiring teenagers, hoping that one of them would catch his eye. Chatters and whispers could be heard by the dark brown hair colour male. He rolled his hetrochromatic eyes. The right eye was blue and the left was grey.

Aaron tuned out the rest of what Shadis said. He really could not care less. He watched as Shadis strolled down the rows of the twelve or whatver age they were kids. _'Brats'._ The brunet nearly snickered at the thought as he strolled around the cadets. He should really stop letting Levi influence him.

He strolled around with his hands clasped behind his back. Aaron glanced over to Shadis, who was currently interrogating a girl holding a potato. As he listened to the conversation, it kept getting harder and harder to keep his laughter in. But the moment she told Shadis that he could have half of the potato - which totally was not half - he burst out laughing. Even going as far as to fall to his knees while clutching his sides, with tears in his eyes. Much to Shadis's irritation.

= Hours later=

"Woah. Potato girl is still running."

"She's been at it for 5 hours. Man, she's really something."

Aaron watched the brunette, whom he had come to know her as Sasha Blouse. Man, that memory will forever stay in his mind. That was certainly new.

"What's that?" he heard a male asking. Aaron turned his attention to the male and recognized him as Eren Jeager. The boy was motioning towards a carriage in the distance.

"They're dropouts. They asked to work in the fields instead."

"Woah! Really? It's only the first day too."

"Well, that's just how it is. If you can't make it here, you have to leave." Eren responded.

That caused Aaron to perk up at Eren's response. "Hm. Interesting." the 17 year old thought aloud. Loud enough for the discussing cadets to hear. Aaron walked slowly towards them. And upon hearing Aaron's comment, the group tensed up. Their posture straightening as they turned their attention to him.

"Sir!" they all exclaimed at the same time.

"Let me add something." Aaron stood in front of them. "You know, based on personal experience, just because you pass the requirements here, does not mean that you are ready for what is awaiting out there." His finger pointed toward the wall in the far distance.

"You know why? It is because they don't let you train with actual titans. So majority of the cadets do not know the actual feeling you get when you face a titan. Thus, when those cadets actually meet face to face, they may and probably will get scared or panic. It will feel... Different."

The group's eyes widened. "Judging by your faces, you guys are most likely not cut out, and maybe this isn't for you." Aaron smirked.

Blue and grey eyes scanned the reactions of the cadets, but Eren had this look on his face that had determination writen ALL over it. "S-Sir!" he choked out. Aaron hummed in response.

"I will prove to you that I am cut out for the outside world!" Eren declared, whilst taking a step forward.

"Ho? Really now, Jeager?"

"Yes sir!"

"Okay. We'll see, cadet Jeager." Aaron took a step closer. His face just a mere inch away from Eren's face. "And if you do, I'll take it upon myself to save you a spot on my squad. How does that sound?"

Eren's eyes widened a large fraction, excitement, determination and whatever other stupid positive shit danced across it. "Yes sir!"

Aaron chuckled. An idea suddenly formed in his head. _'It wouldn' t hurt to tease him a little.'_ he thought. Smirking, the brunet did the most unexpected thing ever. He closed the inch long gap. Pressing his lips onto Eren's soft and warm ones. He lingered there for a while. Long enough for Eren and the group of cadets to recover from the shock and actually processed what had happened.

Eren's eyes widened so big, Aaron thought that his eyeballs could pop out and roll onto the floor. The male took a step back and snickered at the damage he had done. Then, he spun on his heels and waved them off.

He covered at least a few meters of distance away before he heard shouts and exclamations of either shock, congratulations - for some reason - and some asking what that was.

Aaron laughed. And he was out of earshot.

.~.~.

**_Year 847 Next day_**

Aaron lay down on his bed, busy reading a book about the outside world. He was currently reading about extremely tall hills of rocks that contained 'watery fire' called 'lava'. And it was appearently called a 'volcano'. It was so interesting.

He should have been outside helping out with the aptitude test but he thought that Shadis would be able to handle it himself. Though Aaron was definitely going to get an earfull later. The book did not have any images or drawings. Which, always allowed Aaron to spend his free time imagining and drawing about the things that the book described about.

Snatching out his sketch book, he flipped to an empty page and started sketching what the 'volcano' would look like. He drew an extremely tall hill with a dent in the top, adding a few intricate details such as special moss that was said to be able to live near the extremly hot 'lava' and, a few trees at the base of the 'volcano'.

He turned to a few different pages to admire some of the other drawings. Like the supposed big orange cat with black stripes he had drawn the day before the previous day. It was called a 'tiger'. Or like the tall animal with an extremely long neck which could be about the same height as a 4 meter titan, it was called a 'giraffe'. According to the book it could even be as tall as a 6 meter titan, but they do not eat humans.

Many hours passed, and Aaron spent them reading, sketching and cleaning his room. Only just realising that it was about dinner time, he placed his book down and left his room.

And suddenly, a wild angry Keith Shadis appeared. Horrified beyond belief, Aaron immediately tried to escape. The keyword here being _'tried'. _He was doomed.

.~.~.

**_Year 848 Some forest 1 year since enroling._**

Aaron sighed despondently. The amazing bald old man, Shadis, thought that it would be_'fun' _to test out the skills of the cadets by having **_him_** chase the cadets around with their gear. The soldiers-in-training were given a 5 minutes headstart, so as to make up for the 'disadvantage'. They were also supposed to not get caught by him during a period of 45 minutes.

The brunet turned his heat towards Shadis, and after receiving a nod from him, Aaron left to chase the cadets.

15 minutes have passed and Aaron had already caught majority of the soldiers. He stood on a tall branch in the middle of the forest, looking out for the remaining cadets: Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Marco, Bertholdt, Reiner, Annie, Jean, Sasha, Connie, Ymir and Christa.

He look down on the floor and found Sasha and Connie trying to sneak around. Aaron silently face-palmed himself, _'They are complete idiots.'_

He silently lowered himself to the floor. Aaron sneaked towards them, he then proceeded to grab them both by their shoulders, while he whispered in their ears that they were out.

The game continued, and in the ten minutes that had passed, Aaron had caught everyone by then. The last one being Eren.

So when Aaron walked out with a blushing Eren covering his face in his arms - yes, Eren was being carried - everyone groaned.

"Well, looks like all of you failed to escape death and became a full course meal for the titans!" Shadis bellowed. "Alright, since you all failed, you all are running 15 laps around the camp! I'll be watching!" his voice boomed once again.

Complaints could be heard coming from the cadets. Causing the young male chuckle.

-

**End of chapter.**

**_Random funfact that has nothing to do with the story #1_: Aaron's name means 'shining light' in Hebrew and 'messenger' in Arabic.**

**_Random meaningful quote which might or might not have anything to do with the story but I'm not sure yet #1_: "The worst part about being strong, is that no one asks whether you are okay."**

**_Random meaningful quote which also has nothing to do with the story #1:_**** "Which is better? To be comforted by a lie or boken by the truth?**

**Thanks for reading :)**


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